Afghan Warrior

2006-06-23

Restricting the Media Activities in Afghanistan

According to the news reports, Afghanistan's intelligence department has issued a two page document to the local media which restricts their activities. This decision sparked the anger of the Afghan journalists around the country because this two page document stops the local newspapers from doing their important and main activities. The free press has made magnificent progress since the fall of the Taliban. According to the Afghan constitution the free press has the right to carry out their activities with out any pressure from the government or any other organizations. So in my opinion the government should reverse its decision and our media should be free to publish the reality and tell our people what is going on in their country. Every day in our newspapers the top articles are about roadside bombing, suicide attacks, militant activities and also there are articles about the ANA and coalition forces attacks on enemies and their success over the enemies. And if our media and newspapers do not report these important news items then there will not be any important news for them to publish and the newspapers will be almost blank because there are not much reports about reconstruction in our country. In the free world the newspapers have the right to publish good news and bad news.

Publishing news about the terrorists attacks will not weaken our government. The terrorist attacks will increase the aversion of our people to the enemies and they will try to help their government to identify the enemies and avoid the attacks. Our people will never support the enemies - they have already suffered war for almost 3 decades and they will never support the enemies of peace and freedom.

Our media is not 100% free and it's still under the pressure of some warlords and Jihadi leaders that are in the current parliament and some government posts - even though our constitution states that those leaders and commanders that have been involved in crimes can not be participating in parliament. But to the contrary, many of these leaders were elected themselves and came to parliament. Our media is not mentioning their crimes because these leaders have influence. There is only one lady who is a member of parliament and she always mentions about the crimes of these leaders in parliament. And once these leaders attacked her with water bottles because she was telling the truth. So we hope our media should be more free to tell the reality and hope our president Hamid Karzai will change this decision, and our media, especially newpapers, should be free to publish the reality about the current situation in Afghanistan.

2006-06-19

The Recruit of Militia Forces in Afghanistan

The Afghan Government has announced that it will recruit tribal militias to boost security in their areas. This decision has not been welcomed by most Afghans. On one hand the government carried out the disarmament program to disarm the militias, but on the other hand the government arms irresponsible people. We know that without security and peace it is impossible to make progress. In every country the security forces are organized under the formation of ministry of defense, ministry of interior, and intelligence forces and our government also has these three organizations and we don't need militia forces to ensure security for us.

However the government of Afghanistan has emphasised many times to disarm the irresponsible militia and therefore the government has launched DDR programs and under these programs thousands of militia forces have been disarmed. But now we see its going in the opposite direction and the government is going to arm the militias in the southern and southeastern provinces like Helmand, Farah, Konar and Paktia provinces, which can be dangerous in the future, it's hard to guarantee. These militia forces might interfere with the police and use their power in wrong ways. We have already experienced this during the civil war, so in my opinion the government should stop this process as soon as possible and if the government continues this process it will show the weakness of our government and foreign forces to provide security for the Afghan people.

We have the forces of more than 30 foreign countries here, plus our national army and police. So with the presence of these forces we dont need militia forces to boost security for us. We know that in some tribal areas we have only 40 police for a population of 200,000, which is not enough force to provide security. We need more forces to ensure security for the tribal people, but not by the tribal militias. We want our government forces to do this job, therefore we hope our government accelerates the conscription process around the country and recruits Afghans to join the national army and police. At the moment this process is going very slowly and in the past 4 years we haven't completed the 75,000 Afghan army forces.

So in my opinion the Afghan government should use all its effort to improve security and increase the number of police forces and army forces because security is the most important thing in a human's life. So we hope the world community will help our government in order to improve its security forces and recruit enough forces to eradicate the terrorists from our country.

2006-06-03

Bloody Traffic Accident and Protest

Monday's fatal traffic accident was one of the worst traffic accidents in the capital Kabul, which caused casualties unrest and financial damage. The riots started when a US military vehicle smashed into a number of civilian vehicles. A number of angry Afghans gathered at the scene and started to attack the military convoy with stones. According to the eyewitnesses, the US troops and Afghan forces opened fire on the crowd after they gathered around the convoy and it caused more casualties. Thousands of people marched through the streets of Kabul after 25 people were killed in the car accident and subsequent gun battle. The angry protesters attacked police guard posts and set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings. Although it was an accident, it caused the anger of locals who were the witnesses of this bloody accident and led to a riot.

Unfortunately some groups of bad guys take part in this protest to take advantage of the protest and to steal and destroy the property of foreign aid organizations and civilians. They looted a few places like restaurants and foreign aid organizations but most foreign aid organizations were safe because Afghan National Army and police did not let the protester to enter those area where most foreigners live and they were pointing their weapons directly towards the protesters to stop them from attacking. Police arrested dozens of people on charges of involvement in agitation and 64 people have been detained over Monday night. In my opinion those people who started the protest couldn't control themselves after they saw this bloody accident and they thought it occurred due to careless driving and therefore they started roiting. And these people did not destroy or burn anything, but some bad elements who wanted to take advantage of this protest committed violence for their own benefit and stimulated the youngsters and students to demonstrate. These groups of bad elements burnt a post office and some other government and civilian properties. Destroying their own country is such a bad action and it was unacceptable to every Afghan.

Mostly civilians suffered from this riot because many civilian properties were damaged and destroyed in this protest. Most Afghan people condemned the violent demonstration. I talked to some people, and heard some people talking between themselves, and all of them were against violence. Our constitution states that the people have the right to protest but not to destroy government and civilian property. The Afghan media and newspapers also condemned those protesters who caused destruction and advised people to protest peacefully and to not let the enemies take adantage of such a riot.

Most Afghans complain about the aggressive driving of the US military convoys. Coalition military convoys often pass through the crowded areas at high speed and sometimes disregard traffic rules. We know such driving tactics are necessary to protect the convoys from attack but they should also remember that it's also dangerous for people and civilian cars. I hope our police should seek better ways to handle the protesters and instead of killing them with bullets they must use tear gas and other equipment to separate the protesters. It's against human rights anywhere in the world to open fire at civilians. I hope our police learn from the past experience and handle such a protest peacefuly. We hope the US government could donate some of those guns that can be used against the protesters without causing casualties, like tear gas etc. However it was just an accident and these kinds of accident happen everywhere in the world. We hope our people learn to be patient. They are just experiencing the freedom. So we hope in the future all military convoys drive with caution while they pass crowded areas. This one accident will not effect anything bad in our relationship with the United States of America and our friendship will continue. The Afghan people need the presence and support of the United States in order to defeat the terrorists and make a peaceful and safer world.